Hosteling fiascos aside, we really are having an excellent time here. Here, by the way, is the town of Kilronan on the island of Inis Mor, in the Aran Islands. The Aran are a pretty neat place: essentially they are huge granite slabs lying out in Galway bay, to the west of the main island of Ireland. Fortunately, the west sides of these islands are ~300 foot high cliffs sloping down gently over fields and farms to the beaches on the east sides. This provides for reasonable protection from the offshore breezes and fairly massive wave action of the Atlantic. By the way, when I say massive, I’m not shitting you. We were standing at the top of one of the more impressive cliffs looking out over the ocean, and not only could we hear the roar of the surf pounding the cliffs below, but we could also feel the granite cliffs shuddering under the impact. Rarrrrhhhrrr! The island is covered with little green plots of land separated by stone fences. Fence building here seems to consist primarily of stacking shards of the local granite on top of each other, sans mortar. It’s pretty primitive looking, or old-school at he very least: the locals have been building stone enclosures in this way for over 2000 years. There are a number of hill forts and 1500+ year old graveyards, tons of old ruined stone houses, gorgeous ocean views, etc. Travelouge crapola aside, mom my has had a thing for coming here since I can remember, and making this journey was a very big deal to her.
We caught a ferry out here from Rossaveal, which isn’t much more than a tiny port with some hyper-seaworthy looking ferries parked at the pier. The reason for these became clear as we took off in some pretty choppy seas: the boat was maybe 150 feet long, and was shooting up off the the waves and crashing back down into the troughs between the waves. Neat! I though I might get seasick, but didn’t for whatever reason. After landing, enduring the hosteling fiasco, and spending the night at the Pier House, we got up and caught a tour (mini) bus around the island to see the sights. There was lots of info about saints, ruined churches, still inhabited thatch roofed cottages, fishing techniques, etc. But, the real attraction was Dun Anghosa, pronounced “duhn Angus”, which is an iron age stone ring fort built on the edge of one of the islands more imposing cliffs. Stone ring forts are pretty common in Ireland and Europe in general, and usually consist of two walls of stacked stones, a burly inner one within which people lived, and a less burly outer one where they kept livestock. The inner walls of forts I have seen are usually 15 to 20 feet high, and 5 to 10 feet thick. While Dun Anghosa technically is a ring fort, it should really be called a half ring fort, because it’s actually just a semi circle built up against the cliff edge. The view off of D.A. is pretty freaky, and of course mom wanted to get right up to the edge. Her balance is pretty goofy these days, so I was nervous about her going too close and kept bugging her to keep back from the edge. Funny how roles reverse as time goes by! This place is pretty damn cool, fairly moving in the same way that Stonehenge was, but more so from a natural wonder kind of perspective… those cliffs were totally amazing.
on the way up, see D.A. in the background
closer still
mom sitting on the D.A. altar
view from D.A.
1 comment:
Could it be that Ean was the one nervous about the drop off point?
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